Domain I - Resident Care and Quality of Life (Common Medical Terms) Flashcards
Common Medical Terms
Activities of Daily Living
The five basic everyday activities residents engage in: eating, dressing, walking, toileting and communicating.
Common Medical Terms
Acute
Intense, usually a painful and/or serious condition, often fatal, as an acute illness.
Common Medical Terms
Ambulatory
Able to walk about, not bedridden.
Common Medical Terms
Amputation
Surgical removal of a limb, part, or organ.
Common Medical Terms
Aseptic
Free from disease producing organisms. Also, referred to as asepsis.
Common Medical Terms
Atrophy
The wasting away of an organ or tissue as brain cells in Alzheimer’s.
Common Medical Terms
Autopsy
Examination of organs, tissues, and cells of a dead person.
Common Medical Terms
Bedridden
Confined to bed, unable or not allowed to sit, stand or walk.
Common Medical Terms
Benign
Not recurrent or progressive, nonmalignant, good prognosis.
Common Medical Terms
Blood Pressure
The pressure of the blood on the walls of the blood vessels, measured as systolic and diastolic and recorded as 130/80.
Common Medical Terms
Bypass
Surgically installing an alternate route for blood to bypass an obstruction in a main or vital artery.
Common Medical Terms
Chemotherapy
Treatment of a disease with chemical compounds, as thiazides and coumarins.
Common Medical Terms
Chronic
Prolonged, of long duration and/or recurring, as a chronic disease.
Common Medical Terms
Colostomy
Opening of a portion of the colon onto the abdominal surface to divert the flow of feces from the colon and anus.
Common Medical Terms
Coma
A state of profound insensibility caused by disease, injury, or poison; totally unconscious.
Common Medical Terms
Comatose
Relating to or like a coma; in a coma; lethargic.
Common Medical Terms
Communicable
Capable of spreading from one person to another, as a communicable disease.
Common Medical Terms
Congenital
Existing at, or dating from birth, not inherited, as a congenital deformity.
Common Medical Terms
Contagious
Communicable by contact, spreading from one person to another, as a disease; or charged with disease germs, as contagious material.
Common Medical Terms
Contusion
A bruise in which the skin is not broken.
Common Medical Terms
Convalesce
To gather strength after sickness; to recover health gradually.
Common Medical Terms
Cytotoxic
Destruction of white cells as in patients treated with radiation, chemotherapy, and immunosuppressants.
Common Medical Terms
Decubitus Ulcer
See pressure sore.
Common Medical Terms
Degenerative
Deterioration of a tissue or an organ in which vitality is diminished.
Common Medical Terms
Dehydrated
When body tissues lose too much water.
Common Medical Terms
Delirium
A state of mental confusion characterized by disorientation of a time and place.
Common Medical Terms
Delusional
A false belief or misconception regarding the self, as delusions of persecution or being poisoned.
Common Medical Terms
Diagnosis
Determined by examination using both clinical and laboratory methods; also, the decision reached, as pneumonia, carcinoma, etc.
Common Medical Terms
Dialysis
Removing impurities from the blood by machine when kidneys fail to function.
Common Medical Terms
Edema
Condition in which body tissues retain an excessive amount of fluids.
Common Medical Terms
Equilibrium
State of balance, contending forces are equal.
Common Medical Terms
Etiology
Cause of a disease.
Common Medical Terms
Gangrene
Necrosis or death of tissue, usually due to deficiency in blood supply.
Common Medical Terms
Geriatrics
A medical specialty concerned with care and treatment of the aged.
Common Medical Terms
Germicide
A disinfectant which destroys disease germs; used to control the spread of diesease
Common Medical Terms
Hallucination
Having a sensory experience - feeling, hearing, smelling, seeing or perceiving - when there is no basis in reality nor any exterior stimuli, as hearing voices when no one speaks.
Common Medical Terms
Hematoma
A swelling that contains blood; blood under the skin or in tissues.
